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Want to know what's happening in the major angles in WWE right now? Get eyes on our Raw preview and Reactions, since everyone knows Monday night is when the important stuff happens.
Want to know what is definitely happening on tonight's SmackDown from Providence, Rhode Island? Peep our spoiler post.
On Thursday mornings, we'll dig into the mid-card, the interesting and/or horrible stuff happening on the fringe away from your John Cenas and Brock Lesnars. Plus, pretend for a spoiler-free minute that we're the Legendary Teddy Long and guess at the blue brand's patented tag match of the week!
He ain't heavy, he's a Strongman (and a Rosebud)
Just when you thought Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns' SummerSlam rematch on Monday night was either a way to make sure the portion of the audience that doesn't subscribe to WWE Network knew how big of jobbers Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper are, an escaped Rosebud switched cults and ran roughshod through the former Shield boys to signal that this family feud ain't over yet.
Sister Abigail's black sheep is Braun Strowman, who's been in Developmental since 2013 after a career as a professional strong man. He looked plenty impressive working what we can assume will be his signature spots on Raw, and is another step toward making The Eater of Worlds an actual cult leader again.
Outside of playing a hard-partying Roman Centurion who could help a man dressed as a hamburger catch Adam Rose, we don't know a lot about Strowman's wrestling IQ. My gut says that if he was much more than a powerful guy with a scary look, we'd have seen him on NXT in the last two years, but who knows? We'll find out more soon, since Bray has vowed to continue making Reigns' life miserable.
What they should do: The sight of both Shieldbros unconscious and laid out was pretty darn impressive. At this point, though, I'm not sure how many Braun beatdowns it will take to get us seriously worried about Roman & Dean not winning a pay-per-view (PPV) match against The Wyatts, however.
Erick Rowan is out until at least around Survivor Series with a torn biceps, and might even be ignoring his calls JTG-style for the next few weeks now that Strowman's on the scene. I'd not only hold out to put the Redbeard back on the team, but add another player in the interim to really run DAT NUMBERS GAME and create a sense of danger for Ambreigns. How about a cruiserweight to go with all of those hosses? I bet Brad Maddox could grow a beard...
What we're afraid they'll do: Set the cruise control for a handicap match at Night of Champions, using the newest Wyatt as an impressive-looking target for Roman's Spear, not only neutering him before he even gets started, but confirming Bray as so much sound and fury signifying nothing.
As The Giant Turns
After coming up short in his attempt to wrench the Intercontinental title away from Ryback, the star of the latest Soska Sisters' film found himself in Monday night's big catch-all tag match. Big Show was blamed for the loss by two of his heelish teammates, and taken down by Rusev and Kevin Owens as a result.
But that wasn't the end of Show's bad time in Brooklyn. Unable or willing to see an assault by two rudos as a face turn, the good guys all decided to get their shots in on the wounded Giant. It was a weird scene, and may have given future "please retire" chants a tinge of sympathy, since it kind of made him look like an old male elephant being chased out of the herd by younger males and then killed by a bunch of lions.
What they should do: While I don't have a strong feeling about Show's specific character arc, I hope he stays in the IC title picture...if only because it keeps him away from other title pictures.
I would like to see pretty much everyone not named Randy Orton and Sheamus from that Raw tag follow him into the quest for The Big Guy's strap. Though I'm not a huge supporter of Big Hungry, dueling with that assortment of talent would help get him over as a fighting champ. We'd probably get an assortment of tag matches with Ryback and either Dolph Ziggler or Cesaro against Rusev & KO. And if any of those last three names ended up with the strap, well, who am I to complain?
What we're afraid they'll do: Big Show crying. Rivers and rivers of Giant tears.
The Theodore Long Honorary Tag Match goes to...
Having covered the two group angles from earlier this week already, and because I promised that I was going to make it through one post this week without talking about #DivasRevolution, let's just focus on tonight's announced attraction...The Dudley Boyz!
The advertisements don't specify a match, but even if they come out to address the crowd and set their sights on The New Days tag titles, someone is going to interupt and we'll end up with a match. My money is on the occasionally heel-ish Los Matadores, or maybe it's time to drag Damien Sandow & Curtis Axel out of Hulk Hogan-induced mothballs to take a head butt to the groin?
And if you put Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods ringside for commentary...that's your main event right there, even if Bubba Ray and D-Von face Beef Mode.
(Note: I know some folks have come looking for a more definitive match listing - that will be posted behind spoiler text in the comments. If WWE.com releases more information on anything that's officially going to take place on tonight's show, that'll be updated here)